Month: October 2020

After gaining a huge cult following, Conan Gray released his heartfelt debut album Kid Krow back in March. The album is a heartsick reflection on identity, young love, and the politics of high school life, but one song in particular stands as a fan-favorite. Gray’s track “Heather” has captivated audiences with its earnestness, and the singer brought a performance of the track to The Late Late Show With James Corden.

Gray sang “Heather” amid billowing white sheets. As the song progressed, Gray became increasingly urgent with his delivery, eventually falling back into the sheets, ripping them down, and revealing a vast California landscape.

Briefly chatting to Gray ahead of his performance, Corden gushed over the singer’s recent rise: “I’m so thrilled for everything that’s happening in your life and career at the moment. It feels like everywhere I turn, people are just going crazy about you.” Corden also spoke to Gray about “Heather,” asking Gray why he almost didn’t include it on his debut album:

“When I wrote the song, I was really embarrassed because it’s about this girl from my high school who barely knew that I even existed and I was super jealous of her. I just thought that, maybe, no one would relate to it. I thought that I was insane feeling the way I felt. I was super jealous of her, it’s not a very nice song. It’s not very nice to tell someone you want them to disappear. So, I almost didn’t put it on the album. I thought that I was crazy and it turns out that I’m not the only one that’s felt that way about someone. I think everybody has a Heather in their life.”

Watch Gray perform “Heather” on The Late Late Show above.

Kid Krow is out now via Republic. Get it here.

Are you a little fried? I bet you are. I am, for sure, what with everything happening all the time, relentlessly. While television shows and movies can often be ways to relax and turn the volume down in your brain a little bit, sometimes even the sweetest, nicest options you can find — a Ted Lasso or a Schitt’s Creek — run a little hot. No, sometimes you want to shut it all down. This is fine. It’s good. And now A World of Calm is here to help.

The show, available on HBO Max, is maybe the most soothing thing I’ve ever seen. Created by the people behind the Calm meditation app, it’s just ten half-hour episodes about nature and food and glass and birds, all narrated by celebrities with peaceful voices. It says a lot about the world as it is presently constructed that this was the show I was most looking forward to this fall, and it did not disappoint. I had no idea how badly I needed to hear, like, Kate Winslet talk about horses or Keanu Reeves talk about trees. Turns out the answer was “a lot.”

Below, I have ranked all 10 episodes from least to most soothing. They’re all soothing, though. This is just splitting hairs. And now I want an episode about getting a haircut, narrated by, oh, let’s say Helen Mirren. Watch this show. You’ll understand.

10. Episode 6 — “The Great Beyond”

Narrated by: Idris Elba

Official summary: As we take giant leaps in the advancement of space travel, the vast, complex beauty of galaxies reveals itself with a level of clarity and reach that prior generations could only dream of.

What watching it feels like: Like doing one very slow zero-gravity somersault after another, just spinning freely with no resistance, which an astronaut in this episode actually does.

Additional notes: This one has a lot going for it. Idris Elba’s voice is wonderful and many of the space shots — especially the ones of Saturn’s rings — are captivating. The issue here is that I didn’t particularly want to comprehend my insignificant place in the vast expanse of the cosmos, at least not while I’m trying to relax. A bit much!

9. Episode 4 — “Snowfall”

Narrated by: Cillian Murphy

Official summary: After completing an epic voyage through the atmosphere, the real journey for snow begins after it touches down on earth, blanketing the world with promises of wonder and adventure.

What watching it feels like: Like being a little baby rolling around on a puffy white cloud in the sky, just staring at things with wonder-filled eyes, without enough knowledge to fear any of it, but just enough to be relentlessly amazed by all of it.

Additional notes: Here’s the problem, and I fully cop you this being a Me Issue more than it is a critique of the show: I watch Peaky Blinders. I love it. And in that show, Cillian Murphy plays a gangster named Tommy Shelby, a man who goes entire episodes moving and speaking slowly, deliberately, before erupting into furious fits of violent rage directed at his enemies or whoever happens to be standing closer to him than his enemies. So listening to him talk about snow in gentle, soft tones was wonderful until I remembered the Peaky Blinders of it all and half-expected him to burst into the frame with a Tommy Gun and start spraying it into snowmen. Again, definitely a Me Issue. But these are my rankings. So the point stands.

8. Episode 2 — “The Glassmaker”

Narrated by: Zoe Kravitz

Official summary: Aided by a deep understanding of the natural world, one of the Netherlands’ leading glassmakers harnesses the elements – earth, wind, fire, and air – in order to transform sand into wondrous works of art.

What watching it feels like: Lying in a field and just watching windmills spin very slowly as they catch the passing breeze.

Additional notes: A few pros and cons here.

PRO: Lots of shots of bright, fire-red glass melting and becoming a liquid, oozing itself into shape; a Dutch glassmaker named Bibi who seems awesome; etc.

CON: Too many shots of lava flowing wherever it wants, barreling through and destroying anything in its path.

7. Episode 9 — “The Gift of Chocolate”

Narrated by: Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Official summary: Celebrate one of the world’s most prized and venerated trees, the cacao, a symbol of fertility and abundance once traded as currency¬ – and a gift from nature that, above all else, gives us chocolate.

What watching it feels like: Sitting on a couch with a blanket wrapped around your body and nothing to do for an hour or so.

Additional notes: This was lovely and made me realize I would 100 percent just watch footage of people making chocolate in slow-motion even with no narration. I’d even watch an hour of them just pouring melted chocolate from one container to another. It’s fine. We’re all doing great!

6. Episode 10 — “Water, Giver of Life”

Narrated by: Mahershala Ali

Official summary:As water in all of its various forms weaves a tapestry across the globe and permeates every facet of life, take a moment to reflect on its journey and offer gratitude for all it provides.

What watching it feels like: When you’re cutting wrapping paper with scissors and everything lines up perfectly for a second and the scissors just start to glide through the paper like a fish swimming downstream.

Additional notes: Oh hell yeah, I will listen to Mahershala Ali talk about babbling brooks. I will listen to it forever. Mahershala Ali, if you are reading this, come hang out with me next to a real babbling brook. I’ll be quiet, I promise. I’ll let you talk. But only about the babbling brook. Please do not change the subject. We can talk about whatever you want next time. This one is strictly brook chat.

5. Episode 3 — “The Birds’ Journey”

Narrated by: Nicole Kidman

Official summary: As spring arrives and birds around the world take flight for their yearly migrations, a system of interconnected moving parts help keep nature driving forward.

What watching it feels like: Soaring through sky with your wings extended, looking down at the ground below, not even focusing on anything in particular, just kind of scanning while soaring.

Additional notes: It should be noted that people who have a British or Australian or South African accent have a bit of an unfair advantage here, as their voices are just objectively better at narrating nature documentaries than anyone else’s. Imagine watching 30 minutes of deeply soothing footage of birds narrated by some goon with the thickest Philly accent you’ve ever heard. “Watch cleauslee as the eauree-ole seaurs among the clay-ouds.” Absolutely not. Nicole Kidman, though? Yes. She can talk about birds all she likes.

4. Episode 1 — “The Coral City”

Narrated by: Lucy Liu

Official summary: As the breaking dawn illuminates the thriving underwater metropolis of coral in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, a multitude of tiny, majestic creatures work together to keep the reef alive.

What watching it feels like: Kind of like that GIF up there of the turtle.

Additional notes: At one point in here we meet a little dude whose people have lived in the ocean-adjacent land near the reef for centuries. He rules. There are so many shots of this kid paddling his boat through the sea or swimming underwater with a slew of brightly-colored tropical fish and I don’t know if I’ve ever been more jealous of another human being in my entire life. I hope he never changes. Kid has it all figured out, man.

3. Episode 5 — “Living Among Trees”

Narrated by: Keanu Reeves

Official summary: In order to fulfill a childhood dream, a Latvian man roots himself in the slow and steady rhythm of the natural world to craft a canoe from one of its massive, yielding tree trunks.

What watching it feels like: Floating on a tranquil lake, in a canoe you made yourself, staring up at the sky and listening to birds chirp around you in the woods surrounding the water.

Additional notes: The thing here isn’t so much that there’s an episode of television where Keanu Reeves tells you about a cool Latvian dude who lives in the forest and builds an entire canoe out of a single tree, to the degree that he makes a tar out of its roots and uses that tar to waterproof it, which we see when he paints it on in long, slow strokes that are shown at what appears to be 10 percent of its natural speed. No, the thing here is that it took us until the end of 2020 to make this. What have we been doing? Why didn’t this exist over a decade earlier? I honestly do not know. I’m glad it’s here now, though.

2. Episode 8 — “A Horse’s Tale”

Narrated by: Kate Winslet

Official summary: Uncover the true magic of horses – free, beautiful, and calm spirits who embody power, gentleness, and adaptability.

What watching it feels like: Watching many majestic horses sprint in slow-motion across a desert

Additional notes: This would have been number one, easily, if not for two developments. One, the episode opens with a look at a group of small horses who live on a tiny island that they share with a huge population of seals, and they survive the harsh conditions by eating the vegetation that grows naturally when the seals poop and ocean water fertilizes the soil, and when this all started to sink in — little horsies and seals living peacefully on an island fertilized by poo — I shouted “WHAT?!” at a volume that cannot be described as “calm” or “relaxed. ”

Two, look at this freaking guy.

I was a little too amazed to be soothed. Decent problem to have.

1. Episode 7 — “Noodles”

Narrated by: Oscar Isaac

Official summary: The story of a family recipe lovingly passed down through generations exploring the origins of the humble noodle from China to Italy and back to the USA.

What watching it feels like: I mean, it’s like watching Oscar Isaac explain noodles to you. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.

Additional notes: No notes. Just more screencaps.

I needed this. Thank you, Oscar Isaac. And thank you noodles, too, I guess. Real team effort here.

When YG first emerged on the scene five albums ago, certain elements of his artistry were more rough around the edges than many rap purists would have liked. But it wasn’t his gift for wordplay or emmaculate cadences that drew listeners in. It was his honesty, at times blunt, brutal, and bombastic, that set him apart from well-practiced Compton cohorts like The Game or Kendrick Lamar or even Problem. His flows lacked polish and he hewed closely to familiar concepts, but there was an edge of lived experience that made his debut, My Krazy Life, and its follow-up, Still Brazy, so electric and engaging.

Now, six years removed and with much more experience, wisdom, and practice in the game — and a lot more to lose than the scruffy, devil-may-care version of himself that once introduced the world to the concept of “flocking” and apologized to his mama for all his street-running shenanigans — YG releases his fifth studio album (and last under his Def Jam deal), My Life 4Hunnid. The new album offers few surprises and while the rougher edges have been polished off, the music provides something else in exchange: A glimpse of a veteran at work — one who has since mastered his craft and turns out to be pretty damn good at it.

While prior releases prompted some listeners to call YG’s music “one-dimensional” due to his aforementioned tendency to stick to comfortable topics, My Life 4Hunnid arrives in a completely different context — as did many other releases this year. Like the rest of us, YG has seen his plans derailed and his day-to-day existence upended by the arrival of the novel coronavirus and the resulting shutdown of his industry, both of which offered frustrating setbacks and promising opportunities for rebirth or renewal.

However, on a personal note, YG also faced turmoil, seismic upheaval, and the reevalution of his own emotional state early this year, which inform the self-effacing tone and anxieties expressed on tracks like lead single/album closer “Laugh Now Kry Later.” He began 2020 demonstrating personal growth by apologizing to the LGBTQ community for previous ignorant statements and views, a sign that his relationship with Bay Area artist Kehlani had left a positive impact on him. Unfortunately for YG, he also faced the disintegration of that relationship, which he touches on in the lyrics to multiple songs on the album, albeit in an oblique way that suggests he’s looking at things from her point of view as much as his own.

“You be wantin’ more from me,” he confesses on the melancholy “Thug Kry,” “Tryna make me strong when I’m weak / You be wantin’ more from me / But I like you more as a friend.” On “Laugh Now Kry Later,” he addresses his errors in the third person: “Baby got her heart broken, need labor / He cheated, like head, so the n*** played her / Now she anti-dick, she a dick hater / Got her in her house playin’ with the vibrator.” The flashes of his devious humor remain evident, but he’s also smiling to keep from crying, just like the title of the song — a favorite axiom among gangster types — says.

Likewise, YG has been observing the months of civil unrest directed at police who continue to abuse, harass, and murder Black people at a disproportionate rate. He’s spoken on the subject before; Still Brazy contained “Police Get Away With Murder,” a self-explanatory examination of the phenomenon. This time, though, he taps into the zeitgeist from a different angle with “FTP,” reflecting the transformation of the peoples’ exasperation with police’s invulnerability into fury and action. It’s no surprise that “FTP” has not only become the soundtrack of the movement, but reverberates that energy in its protest footage-fueled video.

With just 11 songs, not including the two “Traumatized” interludes recording his own children’s reactions at having police officers’ guns pointed at them during a raid on YG’s house early this year, there was less room for missteps. Unfortunately, the Chris Brown and Tyga-featuring “Rodeo” counts as one that started with a good idea — calling back to Tupac’s “How Do You Want It?” — and executing it poorly, speeding up the beat to an arhythmic rattle that doesn’t suit either YG or Tyga’s usually dependable flows. Meanwhile, YG does continue to stick to the usual subject matter, which limits the perception of his growth. Nothing here is particularly high-concept, although the expansive range of instrumentals will undoubtedly widen his appeal beyond the sun-soaked streets of Los Angeles.

My Life 4Hunnid isn’t quite the superstar effort that YG’s first two projects were. Back then, we were watching a rookie coming into the game and blowing us all away with highlight play after highlight play. Now, we sort of know what to expect from him, and when we get it, it’s harder and harder to feel impressed — after all, familiarity breeds contempt. But taking a step back, the timeline of YG’s development as an artist and a craftsman becomes clearer. When a rookie-of-the-year candidate doesn’t quite become the perennial all-star we all thought he’d be, it’s easy to view his career trajectory as a disappointment. But in a game where the average career doesn’t last more than two years/albums, to see him still here, still consistent, and building his business as a label owner while owning up to past mistakes, YG’s persistence and longevity reveal an artist coming into his own. That’s more than enough to satisfy.

My Life 4Hunnid is out now via Def Jam. Get it here.

BTS is in the midst of the most prosperous stretch of their career, but thanks to some South Korean laws, their ascent could be put on pause. In South Korea, able-bodied men between 18 and 28 years old are required to serve in the military for around two years, depending on the military branch. Men must enlist at the latest when they are 28 years old, so for BTS members, the clock is ticking.

For example, Jin, the oldest member of the group, turned 27 this past December, so he has until the end of 2021 to sign up. Meanwhile, his bandmates — RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook — are all between 23 and 27, so they too will have to enlist at some point in the next few years.

There are some politicians who think cultural forces like BTS shouldn’t have to do mandatory military service. Noh Woong-rae, a senior member of the ruling Democratic Party, said at a party meeting earlier this week, “Not everyone has to take up a rifle to serve the country.” Meanwhile, Democratic Party member Jeon Yong-gi proposed that K-pop artists be able to delay their service until they are 30 years old, so as to not disrupt their careers. He said, “For the sake of the fairness, we are not talking about exempting them from their duty, but pop musicians and artists like BTS — their careers can blossom in their twenties. We cannot let military duty block their way at the height of their careers.”

South Korean citizens seem pretty split on the issue, although most agree that some exception should be made for the group. 31.3 percent of respondents to a Kuki News survey believe BTS should be exempt from service, while 28.6 percent said their service should be delayed. Meanwhile, 30.5 percent thought they shouldn’t get special treatment.

The band previously addressed their military prospects in February, with Jin saying at a February news conference, “As a Korean, it’s natural, and someday, when duty calls, we’ll be ready to respond and do our best.” Jungkook added, “I don’t want to think about it at this point, we have something really good going.” RM said he treats every day of his fame as though it’s his last: “That’s the answer. We have to enjoy the ride, live in the moment — that’s all we can do.”

As the second season of The Boys heads into its final episode, Aya Cash wouldn’t mind a shot at playing another superhero. Only this time around, it’d be for the considerably less raunchy Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is gearing up to add the X-Men to the mix following Disney’s multi-billion dollar purchase of Fox.

When asked during an interview if she’d be open to joining the X-Men if the MCU called her up, Cash revealed that she grew up on the team of mutants and would love to be “a part of that world.” As for which character she’d like to play, Cash initially showed a preference for Jean Grey before floating an unexpected role choice. Via ScreenGeek:

I mean, my favorite character in all of the X-Men universe was always Beast. So, if we’re going to do gender swap – no, they would kill me. I don’t even want to do a gender swap.

Interestingly, Cash has already pulled off a successful gender-swap after being cast as Stormfront on The Boys, so that might explain why she walked back her reluctance and included Beast in her final answer for which X-Men characters she’d be open to playing. (Her other choice was Rogue, another hat tip towards Cash growing up on the classic animated series.)

Cash’s casting choice also isn’t the first time the X-Men have popped up in the context of The Boys. Just this week, showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that the upcoming spinoff of the Amazon Prime series will pull heavily from the G-Men storyline in the comics. Much like The Seven satirizes the Justice League, the G-Men are a direct parody of the X-Men and its school for gifted youngsters.

(Via ScreenGeek)

The New England Journal of Medicine is the oldest continuously published peer-reviewed medical journal in the world, and among the most prestigious professional journals on earth. Founded in 1812, the NEJM is where medical professionals have turned for the latest and greatest scientific research for more than two centuries.

The journal rarely publishes editorials signed by all the editors, editor-in-chief Dr. Eric Rubin told CNN. And it has never weighed in on an election—until now.

Rubin penned the editorial published on October 8 and titled “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum.” Without mincing words, it calls on the United States to vote out the current leaders who have failed the “test of leadership” the pandemic has created. “They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy,” the editors wrote. “The magnitude of this failure is astonishing.”

The editorial can be read in full on the NEJM website, but here are some highlights:

First, in how we compare with other countries:

“The death rate in this country is more than double that of Canada, exceeds that of Japan, a country with a vulnerable and elderly population, by a factor of almost 50, and even dwarfs the rates in lower-middle-income countries, such as Vietnam, by a factor of almost 2000.”

“Countries that had far more exchange with China, such as Singapore and South Korea, began intensive testing early, along with aggressive contact tracing and appropriate isolation, and have had relatively small outbreaks. And New Zealand has used these same measures, together with its geographic advantages, to come close to eliminating the disease, something that has allowed that country to limit the time of closure and to largely reopen society to a prepandemic level. In general, not only have many democracies done better than the United States, but they have also outperformed us by orders of magnitude.”

On why the U.S. response has been so bad:

“We have failed at almost every step. We had ample warning, but when the disease first arrived, we were incapable of testing effectively and couldn’t provide even the most basic personal protective equipment to health care workers and the general public. And we continue to be way behind the curve in testing. While the absolute numbers of tests have increased substantially, the more useful metric is the number of tests performed per infected person, a rate that puts us far down the international list, below such places as Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia, countries that cannot boast the biomedical infrastructure or the manufacturing capacity that we have.”

“The United States instituted quarantine and isolation measures late and inconsistently, often without any effort to enforce them, after the disease had spread substantially in many communities. Our rules on social distancing have in many places been lackadaisical at best, with loosening of restrictions long before adequate disease control had been achieved. And in much of the country, people simply don’t wear masks, largely because our leaders have stated outright that masks are political tools rather than effective infection control measures.”

On federal responsibility:

“The response of our nation’s leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them.”

After lamenting the hamstringing and politicization of the CDC, the NIH, and the FDA, the journal blasted government officials for undermining science.

“Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed “opinion leaders” and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.”

And after lamenting the costs of “not taking even simple measures,” the editors called on the American citizens to replace the leadership that got us here.

“Anyone else who recklessly squandered lives and money in this way would be suffering legal consequences. Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But this election gives us the power to render judgment. Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates. But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.”

While the journal refrained from referring to any specific leaders by name, we all know who they’re talking about. The Trump administration has failed the country in its handling of the pandemic, full stop.

Case in point:

We don’t need a medical journal to tell us what we can see with our own eyes, but it sure is refreshing to see it being laid out for history to remember.

As has been said thousands of times this year, the coronavirus pandemic has had a drastic impact on a lot of major plans. One of those affected is the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s annual induction ceremony. The 2020 event was set to take place on May 2, but in March, the date was pushed back. Months later, in July, the live event was scrapped altogether. Taking its place, though, will be a pre-taped induction special, set to air on HBO and HBO Max on November 7. Now, the Hall has revealed what special guests will be involved in the broadcast.

Foo Fighters leader and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl will begin the proceedings with an introduction to this year’s class of inductees (Nine Inch Nails, The Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, T. Rex, Depeche Mode, and the Doobie Brothers, in case you missed it). Other guests who will appear include Luke Bryan, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Miley Cyrus, Billy Gibbons, Don Henley, Jennifer Hudson, Billy Idol, Iggy Pop, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, Chris Martin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brad Paisley, Bruce Springsteen, St. Vincent, Ringo Starr, Gwen Stefani, Charlize Theron, Nancy Wilson, and others. Press materials note that special guests will speak “on how the 2020 inductees impacted their personal and professional careers.”

Joel Peresman, President and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation, says in a statement accompanying the announcement, “We’re honored to come together with this distinguished group of musicians and artists to celebrate our 2020 class of inductees. While this year’s program will be different than those of years past, we look forward to recognizing their impact on the industry, their fans and the next generation of artists.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While the rest of us were making Jeff Goldblum references last night, Emmy Rossum was quieting a crude troll.

The Shameless star tweeted during Wednesday night’s vice president debate that she “can’t wait to get my I’M SPEAKING t-shirt,” referring to a comment made by Senator Kamala Harris after Vice President Mike Pence tried to interrupt her. Most of the replies to her tweet were of the innocuous “SAME” variety, except from one individual who wrote, “Yeah your shirts that say I GET PAID TO GET NAKED ON TV are sold out.”

Rather than ignore the stranger who looks like every guy with “gun owner” in his Twitter bio, Rossum replied, “I get paid to tell stories and life sometimes involves this awesome thing called sex. Maybe you’ve just never had any so you don’t know.” Extremely solid burn. To quote Rossum’s character on Shameless, “Careless, mindless sex has set me free.” You’d think the guy with a “FREEDOM” tattoo (I assume) would be able to relate.

“What I think is so interesting about showing sexuality as part of art is no different than showing any other part of life to inform the art,” Rossum once said about her nude scenes on the Showtime series. “Sexuality is a part of life, I hope, and it’s interesting that the women on the stage get to write, and we get to show characters. We get to explore the intimate parts of them, be that anger or loss or happiness or sexuality.”

Shameless will return for its 11th and final season… eventually.

It’s been two months since Victoria Monét released her polished and provocative record Jaguar. The record showcased her strength as a solo songwriter, tapping Khalid and SG Lewis for the album’s only feature. But now, Monét is expanding her collaborations. Monét turned Kehlani to offer her own sultry reflections on a remix of Monét’s album closer and queer anthem “Touch Me.”

The “Touch Me” remix is still dripping with passion like the original, but adds Kehlani and Monét’s magnetic musings. “I’ll stop rockin’ nails for you / I’ll park the Porsche and drop the top / You drop your dress, I’ll take the stress away from you / You’re beggin’ me to make a move,” Kehlani sings in her verse.

In a statement, Monét said the song is a meaningful one: “This song is a very personal one. As artists, it’s special when we let the music document the details of real experiences and that’s what ‘Touch Me’ does. I think it’s beautiful for so many reasons and I hope people can find their own reasons with every listen.”

Listen to Monét and Kehlani’s “Touch Me” remix above.

Jaguar is out now via Tribe Records. Get it here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music group.

Chris Bosh has been the go-to LeBron James analyst among former athletes during this renaissance season for The King and his Lakers. In a new interview at Complex Sports, Bosh was asked to again make a determination on who James’ best-ever teammate was.

The debate began recently when Kendrick Perkins and Dwyane Wade both expressed their belief that Anthony Davis complimented James better than anyone else with whom he’s played. While Bosh admitted James and Davis may fit better than any co-star James has ever run with, he still believes Dwyane Wade is the answer. The reason has more to do with sacrifice more than anything.

Here’s how Bosh explained it to Alex Wong at Complex Sports:

Do they complement each other? Hell yeah, they do. Has LeBron always had that No. 2 guy? Every time he’s won, yeah he has. But as far as ranking teammates, it’s tough to rank. You know who I’m going to choose. It’s Dwyane Wade for me, because Dwyane said, LeBron, you need to be the guy, you’re the No. 1 option, and I’ll figure everything out, you just go ahead and be comfortable being who you are. On top of that, just the effect they had on the game, I’ve never seen anybody do what they did. The steals. The lobs. The dunks. You could play highlights of those two forever. That stuff is classic. I haven’t seen anything like that before or after. As far as I’m concerned, that’s how I feel. Dwyane was a great complement to him. Just cue the highlights.

Bosh is right in pointing out that, for the first time, James has a roster and scheme that allows him to feed Davis and generate easy offense, which puts Davis in position to look absolutely incredible most nights. This as opposed to Wade, who was so great in 2011-12 that he was able to adjust his game, remain impactful, and still empower James to take over in Miami on their way to the first Heatles championship.